Thursday, May 19, 2011

Get CREATIVE

Sylvia Rortvedt (Associate Dean) and Matt Todd (Collection Development Librarian) traveled to Ashburn, Virginia to visit the "WorkLab" at Creative to check out possible new group study, individual study, and noise abatement solutions for the Alexandria Campus Library.




Look for some Creative solutions coming soon...

Monday, May 16, 2011

What's True?

How do you get your news? Newspapers. talk shows, cable TV, blogs, Tweets, Facebook, network TV, email, RSS feed, smoke signals?


With more information venues than ever before, and with traditional gatekeepers disappearing, it becomes ever more incumbent on the individual citizen to verify, analyse and evaluate the information he receives.




"Veteran journalists Kovach and Rosenstiel (The Elements of Journalism) begin their intelligent and well-written guidebook by assuring readers this is not unfamiliar territory. The printing press, the telegraph, radio, and television were once just as unsettling and disruptive as today's Internet, blogs, and Twitter posts. But the rules have changed. The gatekeepers of information are disappearing. Everyone must become editors assuming the responsibility for testing evidence and checking sources presented in news stories, deciding what's important to know, and whether the material is reliable and complete. Utilizing a set of systemic questions that the authors label "the way of skeptical knowing," Kovach and Rosenstiel provide a roadmap for maintaining a steady course through our messy media landscape. As the authors entertainingly define and deconstruct the journalism of verification, assertion, affirmation, and interest group news, readers gain the analytical skills necessary for understanding this new terrain. "The real information gap in the 21st century is not who has access to the Internet and who does not. It is the gap between people who have the skills to create knowledge and those who are simply in a process of affirming preconceptions without growing and learning." -- Publisher's Weekly.


Check it out today. PN4815.2 K68 2010

Friday, May 06, 2011

More Hours to Study: More Students Served

The Alexandria Campus Library completed it's second week of extended hours to provide increased study and research time for students completing final projects and preparing for final exams. Over 130 students used the library before 8.30am and over 400 students stayed in the library after 10pm, topping numbers for extended hours in the fall term.Carrying on a now popular tradition, snacks were served to students studying late. Healthy snacks like sandwiches, granola bars and dried fruit were the fare this semester, with lots and lots of lemonade.

Thanks to library staff who voluntarily adjust their schedules to make extended hours possible. This is the sixth consecutive year the Library has extended hours for the last week of classes and final exams.

Be sure to visit the Library Webpage to get up-to-date information on Library hours, as these change between terms and for the summer semester.